Compositions are published
The image composition.toml describes how artifacts are produced from packages
The build system (dispatcher) compiles sources, using recipes, into packages. But packages by themselves are just files in a specific format that are stored in a repository. That's not very useful. The composition files describe how packages are combined and shaped into images and other things. A transformation layer.
What sort of images?
For now there are these composition types:
- container image
- generic cloud image
- live USB image
- ISO image
- WSL image
- "pins" - manifest output
The first 5 mentioned are easy to understand, because they have normal image shaped formats: They are ISO, or IMG or Qcow2 type things. They will work in VMs and on live booting sticks.
The pins output format is meant to export just a list of "versions" in manifest style for bare metal testing purposes (and others). It enables systems to just update to a specific new version, without having to worry about "overshooting" the update.
How do I use this?
These files are templates for making your own images. The pkg compose command uses these to build images.
Once the build system and images are available, you'll be able to build images from the live repositories right away.
--sofar (aka Auke)